{"id":45661,"date":"2018-10-16T12:56:42","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T19:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=45661"},"modified":"2018-10-16T12:56:42","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T19:56:42","slug":"why-r2d2-could-be-your-childs-teacher-sooner-than-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/why-r2d2-could-be-your-childs-teacher-sooner-than-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Why R2D2 could be your child\u2019s teacher sooner than you think"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nC3PO, R2D2 and Wall-E: three distinctly memorable robots that captured our hearts as they rolled and beeped across the silver screen.<\/p>\n

But pint-sized and friendly, humanoid robots are now more than just fictional characters. They\u2019re finding their way into new roles as teachers, ready to shape the way students learn in the classroom.<\/p>\n

And the evidence we have to date points to robots as fantastic teachers.<\/p>\n

Children teaching robots<\/strong><\/h4>\n

From as young as 12-months-old, toddlers are learning\u00a0new words<\/a>\u00a0from robot instructors (who also happen to sing and dance along with them). By primary school, children are capable of learning features of\u00a0new languages<\/a>\u00a0taught to them by humanoid robots.<\/p>\n

Robots appear to get the job done as teachers, but how do they shape up as playmates? Kids find robots\u00a0engaging<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 so much so that even when the robot ignores them, children persist in trying to\u00a0get the robot\u2019s attention<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Children tell\u00a0secrets<\/a>\u00a0to robots. Children even feel peer pressure from robots, going so far as to give the\u00a0wrong answer to a question<\/a>\u00a0if that\u2019s what all the robots did before them.<\/p>\n

And what happens when the roles are reversed and the children became the teachers?<\/p>\n

We have learned that children are exceptional teachers to robots. Children have been found to actually\u00a0learn better<\/a>\u00a0when they learn the content to teach to a robot, than if they didn\u2019t have to teach at all.<\/p>\n

And in order to teach robots, kids must learn to program, which means they\u2019re getting\u00a0fundamental STEM skills<\/a>. Kids are already doing this, even in the\u00a0early primary school years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Humanoid robots are a unique case for teaching programming skills to students, because students desire to teach the robot how to do things without\u00a0initially knowing how to do so<\/a>. With a unique motivation to teach the robot, this leads students to direct their own learning towards acquiring the fundamentals of programming.<\/p>\n

In addition to the acquisition of fundamental programming skills, it drives students towards problem solving, seeking new information and sharing their findings\u00a0with their peers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A cascading effect on learning<\/strong><\/h4>\n

While robotic platforms in the classroom are still very new, and most schools are still to find their path into the robotic future, some early examples of the success of robots in the classroom are emerging. In some\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0to be published soon, an all girls school in South Australia has found great success in both robots as teachers and learners.<\/p>\n

Girls in a Year 8 class decided that, for their programming project, they would program a\u00a0NAO robot<\/a>\u00a0to teach the Year 4 girls German words. The Year 8 girls knew neither how to program the robot or how to speak German. Collaboratively, the group of girls independently researched how to program the NAO robot to speak languages, and learnt fundamental German phrases to teach to the robot.
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